1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a thermal processing installation under rarefied atmosphere including several processing cells linked to a common air-tight chamber provided with handling means for transferring a load from one cell to another.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
French patent application 2537260 describes such a thermal processing installation. The processing cells are arranged horizontally in a stellate fashion inside a cylindrical air-tight chamber having a vertical axis. The cells are serviced by a central handling device.
A disadvantage of known installations of this type is that the number of processing cells is fixed. There is no possibility of modifying the installation to make it have additional processing cells.
Another disadvantage of such installations is that it is particularly difficult to achieve maintenance operations inside the chamber, for example to adjust the handling device. Such an operation most often requires a complete or partial disassembly of the handling device.